The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-04-27
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvIME'S sun.
DAY SERMON
Subject: "The Overthrow Of the
Monster"

About eighteen hundred and fifty-thre,
Easter mornings have wakened the earth
In France for three centuries the almanac
made the year begin at Easter, until Charlie
the Tower Of London there is q royal pay
roll of Edward l., on which thert
is an entry of eighteen pence for fou
hundred colored and pictured Easter
eggs, with which the people sported
In Russia, slaves were fed and aims were dis
tributed on Easter. Ecclesiastical councils
met at Pontus, at Gaul, at Rome, at Achaia
to decide the particular day, and after con
troverSy, more animated than gracious, de-
in some way the first Sunday after the full
moon which happens upon or next after
March 81, is filled with Easter rejoicing.
The Royal Court of the Sabbaths is made
up of ifty-two. Fifty-one are princes in the
royal household, but Easter is queen. She
wears richer diadem, and sways a more
jeweled sceptre, and in her smile nations are
rradiated. Unusually welcome this year be
cause of the harsh winter and the late spring
she seems to step out of the snow-bans
rather than the conservatory, come out of the
North instead Of the South, out of the Arctic
rather than the tropics, dismounting from the
lev equinox; but welcome this queenly day,
holding high up in her right hand the
wrenc6ed-off bolt of Christ's sepulchre, and
holding high up in her left hand the key to
all the cemeteries in Christendom.
It is an exciting thing to see an army
routed and flying. They run each other down.
They scatter everything valuablein the track:
Unwheeled artillery. Hoof of horse on breast
Of wounded and dying man. You have read
of the French falling back from Sedan, OF
Napoleon's track of $1,000 corpses in the
snow-banks Of Russia or Of the retreat
of our own armies from Manassas, or OF
the five kings tumbling over the rocks Of Be-
thoran with their armies, while the hail
storms Of heaven and the swords Of Joshua's
host struck them with their fury. In my text
is worse discontinue. 1t seems that black
giant proposed to conquer the earth. He
gathered for his host all the aches and pains
ead malarias and cancers and distempers
and epidemics of the ages. He marched
them down, drilling tLom in the north
at wind and amid the slush
of tempests. He threw up barricades of grave
mound He pitched tent of charnel house.
Some Of the troops marched with slow tread
commanded by consumptions, some in double
quick, commanded by pneumonias. Some he
took by long besiegement Of evil habit, and
ualty. With bony hands he pounded
at the door of hospitals and sick rooms,
and won all the victories in all the great
battlefelds Of all the five continents. Forward
march, the conqueror of conquerors, and all
the Generals and Chief, and
all Presidents and Kings and Sultans and
Cars drop under the feet of his war-charger
But one Christmas night his antagonist was
born. AS most Of the plaques and sick
Of the East, it was appropriate that
the new conqueror should come out Of
tho same quarter. Power is given Him to
awaken all the fallen of all the centuries and
Of all lands, apd marshal them against the
black giant. Fields have already been won,
but the last day Of the worlds exist
ence will see the decisive battle When
Christ shall lead forth His two brigades,
the brigade Of the risen dead and the brigade
Of the celestial host, the black giant will fall
back, and the brigade from the riven
sepulchres will take Him from beneath and
the brigade Of descending immortals will take
Him from above, and death shall be swal-
lowed up in victory.
The old braggart that threatened the con-
quest and demolition Of the planet has lost
his throne, has lost his sceptre, has lost his
palace, has lost his prestige, and the one word
written over all the gates Of mausoleum and
eataccmb and metropolis, on cenotaph and
sarcophaguS, on the lonely khan of the Arc
tic explorer and on the catafalque OF great
cathedral, written in capitals of azalea
and Gala lily, written in musical cadence,
written in doxology OF great assemblages,
written on the sculptured door Of the family
vault, is victory" Coronal word, emban-
nered word, apocalyptic word, chief word of
the triumphal arch under which conquerors
return.
Victory! Word shouted at Culloden and
Balaklava and Blenheim, at Megiddo and Sol
ferino, at Marathon, where the Athenians
drove back the Medes; at Poictiers, where
Charles Martel broke the ranks of the Sara
Gems; at Salamis, where Themistocles in
the great sea fight confounded the
Persians, and . at tho door Of the
Eastern cavern Of chiSeled rock, where
Christ came out through a recess and
throttlod the King of Terrors and put him
back in the niche from which the celestial
Conqueror had just emerged. Aha! when
the jaws of the Eastern mausoleum took
down the black giant death was swallowed
up in victory" I proclaim the abolition of
death.
The old antagonist is driven back into my
thology with all the lore about Stygian ferry
and Charon with oar and boat Melrose
Abbey and Kenilworth Castle are no more in
ruins than is the sspulchre: We shall have
NO more to do with death than we have
with the cloak-room at O Governors or
Presidents levee. We stop at such cloak
room and leave in charge of servant our
overcoa1, our oversnoes, our outward ap-
parel, that we may not be impeded in the
brilliant round of the drawing-room. Well,
my friends, when we 20 out of this world we
are going to q kings banquet, and to a recep-
ton Of monarchs, and at the door of the tomb
we leave the cloak Of flesh and the wrappings
with which we meet the storms Of this
world At'the close of an earthly reception,
under the brush and broom OF the porter the
coat or hat may be handed to us better than
when we resigned il, land the cloak Of human
Ity will finally be returned to us improved
and frightened and purified and glorided.
You and do not want our bodies returned
as tta5ey are now. We want to get rtd 81 az
their weaknesses and all their susceptibilities
to fatigue and all their slowness of locomotion.
They will be put through q chemistry
ing seasons out of which God will
reconstruct them as much better than
they are now as the body Of the rosicst
and healthiest child that bounds over the
lawn at Prospeck Park is better than the
sickest patient in Bellevue Hospital But as
to our soul, we will cross right over, not
waiting for obsequies, independent OF
obituary, into q state in every way
better, with wider room and velocitles
beyond computation; the dullest OF us into
companionship with the very best spirits in
their very best mood, in the very parlor of
the universe. the four walls FURNISHED and
paneled and pictured and glodifed with all
The splendorS that the infinite God In ali the
ages has been able to invent. Victory!
This view OF course makes it OF but little
importance whether we are cremated or
sepultured. If the latter is dust to dust, the
former is ashes to ashes. II any prefar mcn-
Grafton let them have it without car1cature
The world may become so crowded that
cremation may be universally adopted
by law as well as by general con,
sent. Many of the mightiest and
best spirits have gone through this process.
Thousands and tens Of thousands Of God
children have been cremated-P. P. Bliss and
wife, the evangelistic singers cremated by
accident at Ashtabula Bridge; John Rodgers,
cremated by persecution; Latimer and
ro:a1D,r o.or,ofal pofbinrQ